Page 74 of Resurrection
“We will need to split up tonight.” Her comment yanks me out of the warmth I was basking in just a second ago.
“Absolutely not!” Slicing my hand through the air, I ignore the pained groan coming from Andrei.
She has both him and Marcus wrapped around her little finger.
“If you walk in there with me by your side, apart from giving up our surprise, we will get the woman killed,” April says pointedly, as if I should care about the human.
I don’t.
“The woman”—which none of us asked her for a name, and I’m glad— “agreed to this of her own free will. No one forced her.” Ignoring April’s glare, I keep making my point. “She knew it was dangerous, and that it would be at the cost of her life. Thatis the least of our worries.” A shiver runs down my body when April’s eyes flash a golden color. “If we don’t succeed, all of us might join her.”
“Let me make one thing clear, Sebastian.” April’s voice is soft and sweet like a slow killing poison. “If that woman, risking her life to save mine, dies tonight”—coming to stand in front of me, she cups my face, and I nuzzle her palm, unable to stop myself— “everyone in that room will join her, including all of you. This, I promise you, tesoro.” She pulls away after placing a soft kiss to my lips, leaving me bare without her touch.
My heart thumps hard once right against my ribs as I watch her turn her back on me and walk away. I’m eternally grateful her words keep Andrei in muted silence so I don’t turn on my old friend like a wild beast. Fear for her life—for the lives of many others depending on me—mixes with the anger at those dishonorable murderers calling themselves gods, pulsing like a living thing inside me.
April walks past Marcus, who has returned in time to hear her parting words. He stands a few feet inside the bar, holding a tall glass of thick, warm blood while staring at her wide-eyed. She reaches her hand out, patting him gently on his chest twice, then she is gone, leaving the tension-compressed air choking us all.
“She spoke the truth.” Shocked at how calmly she threatened our lives, threatened my life, after she bonded me to her, makes me speak out loud.
“April doesn’t even know the woman.” Andrei frowns, confusion and hurt clouding his face.
“I think both of you are idiots.” At my scowl, he lifts an eyebrow. “With all due respect, Sire”—snapping, he comes to hand me the glass— “it’s like both of you haven’t paid attention to her at all. Don’t you know April by now?”
“What’s that supposed to mean? And tread very carefully now, my friend. I’m not in my right mind.” Snatching the blood, I gulp it down, twisting my mouth in distaste. “It tastes like shit from a glass.”
Marcus simply stares at me. Pressing my forefinger and thumb at the bridge of my nose in hopes of relieving the pressure behind my eyes, I sigh heavily. The glass thumps on the wooden bar where I place it, my fingers sinking in my hair when I sit tiredly on the bar stool.
“Speak.” With my head in my hands, my fingers yanking on my hair, I keep my eyes closed. “As I said before, when it comes to her, I feel less than human.”
“That’s one problem, right there.” It’s a good thing I can’t see Marcus through my closed eyelids because I have a suspicion he is looking down his nose at me, and I’ll rip his head off if that’s the case. “You keep saying human like it’s a vile thing or a vermin, not understanding that regardless of her being reborn and now remembering everything, she still sees herself as one of them.”
My head jerks up, and I stare at him in utter shock. Andrei, who was apparently lifting his drink to his lips, drops his hand with a heavy clink, almost breaking the glass and sloshing whiskey everywhere. The smell of alcohol permeates the air around us. Apart from the knowing glint in his eyes, there is no smugness on Marcus’s face.
“She pushed her fear and hatred of our kind down to come and save you from the Council because you are the only one who kept your promise to her.” His jaw clenches for a long moment before he unlocks it to keep talking. “No matter how deceptive and selfish your promise was—our promise was—what mattered to her was that you kept your word. She looked up to that. To you. She died and was reborn to return it in kind. Even to monsters that have hunted her almost her entire life.”
I feel like my gut is full of lead. Sinking to my feet, Andrei’s gulp is too loud in my ears. Numbness overtakes my irritation, leaving me watching my oldest friend in disbelief. Was I so wrapped up in myself, in the plans I had made, to have missed everything that’s right in front of my face? But Marcus is not done; he keeps talking, adding nails to my still-dead heart.
“I have watched her every dusk standing in front of the mirror, reminding herself who she is. Reminding herself that she is human, no matter what lurks inside her.” I watch, dismayed, when his eyes shimmer with unshed tears. I have never seen him like this in all the centuries I’ve known him. “Even now, when she is fully aware of what she is, her heart holds mercy, compassion, and honor to those that see her as someone worth saving. Someone worth fighting for. I will meet the sun and eternal sleep before I turn my back on that, on her. If the two of you can’t see that, there is no room for me here anymore.” He turns and leaves us both, staring unseeing at the space he occupied.
“What have we done?” Andrei’s words echo my feelings exactly.
“What have we done, indeed.”
Chapter Seventy
APRIL
After leaving the three bullheaded men at the bar, I sit next to mutt’s sleeping form on the floor of the reception hall. I can feel everyone’s eyes on me, but I ignore them, watching my fingers glide through my dog’s fur in fascination. A strange sense of calm has taken residence inside me, and I relax into it. It’s a welcome feeling after all the turmoil and anger shredding my insides for over a week.
Has it been only a week or so? It feels like a lifetime. So many things happened, so many things changed. It should be impossible to have it done in such a short amount of days, yet here we are. And I meant every word I said to Sebastian back there. If that woman dies, I will make no distinction between a friend and a foe. Not if none of them understand the value of sacrifice, or the hurt that bitch Hope can inflict when you are holding onto her like a lifeline.
Mutt nuzzles closer to my leg, as trusting and loyal as ever. This dog never ceases to amaze me, but I still don’t know what I’ve done to deserve it. The memory of that night flashes through my mind’s eye, him standing to the side watching me warily and me…me opening up a container with a slice of smelly-lookingmeat and throwing it at his paws. Before I tried to chase him away, I shared food with him. Realization dawns on me as I finally see what he saw in me that day. Someone to share with, to break the loneliness with.
A family.
My eyes flick up, and my body jolts slightly when I see all the Guardians, including those that used to watch me with apprehension, all clustered around me. What’s more shocking is seeing Marcus among them, right across from me, watching me with sad eyes. I flick my gaze from face to face, my stomach clenching.
There is no more feeding, naked bodies, or sounds of sex around me. No conversations, apart from the soft murmurs coming from the humans that have gathered in a tight nest of their own, glaring my way from the opposite side of the vast space.
